Happiness

I was talking to one of my friends in school a while ago, and i asked her what her main goal in life was. She replied that she just wanted to be happy. i said that was a very immature goal to have for life, and she got really offended and asked what i meant. i didn't really have a good reply to it, but i think i do now. I've read 1984, Fahrenheit 451, brave new world, and this perfect day, and in every single one of those books the inhabitants were happy. happy, but overall very ignorant. everyone's heard the term "ignorance is bliss" and it is probably true. but ignorance is not fulfillment, or success, or joy. if the human race were always happy we would get nothing done. we would just be complacent and stagnant. In "this perfect day" the human race was injected with "treatments" twice a month making them, among other things, at peace, unimaginative, happy, and just like everyone else. The main character managed to skip multiple treatments, and he experienced sexual urges, thoughts of violence, and artistic development. He managed to escape to an island that wasn't controlled by people who were treated. this island was impoverished, violent, and full of other such "evil things." i think happiness breads slothfulness, acceptance, and an overall unproductive person. if there was a machine that just gave you pure orgasmic pleasure all day long for eternity, you would probably say you are a happy person, but you couldn't say your life brought about anything worthwhile or meant anything. i'm not necessarily against happiness, i love being happy, but someone whose pure goal in life is to be happy just makes me sad. happiness is fleeting and subjective. joy on the other hand you earn through actions. joy lasts and comes about when you accomplish something. happiness is a fleeting emotion, while joy is a state of mind. you can be happy at the beginning of your day, but when some small circumstances change, you instantly turn over to bickering and complaining. someone who is filled with joy on the other hand gets happiness out of everything, whether his or her circumstances change or not. it's the person who finds the "silver lining" in everything that is truly filled with joy. happiness in and of itself is not bad, just don't let it dominate and dictate your decisions.
Simple Pleasures: waking up to no one in the house, sleeping past nine o'clock, each picture turning out on your roll of negatives, half of the pictures turning out on your roll of negatives, remembering you have a gift card to the place that you're shopping at, the sound the button makes when you take a picture with an old camera, being really thirsty at night and having a bottle of water right next to you.